Further investigation necessary in Hrant Dink murder

New York, January 17, 2012--The conviction
of several accomplices in the 2007 assassination of Hrant Dink,
then-editor of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos,
fails to address the issue of who commissioned the slaying, thus perpetuating
impunity in the case, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Dink,
52, was shot to death outside his newspaper's offices five years ago this week.
A Turkish citizen of Armenian ethnicity, the journalist was known for his
outspoken pieces on the contentious issue of the 1915 Armenian massacre, which he
had characterized as genocide. Dink had reported receiving threats from radical nationalists before he was killed, CPJ research shows.

Local
media reported today that the 14th Court of Serious Crimes of Beşiktaş
Courthouse in İstanbul declared Turkish national Yasin Hayal to be an
accomplice in the murder and guilty of
inciting the gunman, Ogun Samast, to kill
Dink in retaliation for his views. The court handed Hayal a life sentence
without possibility of parole, news reports said.

Three
other accomplices, all radical nationalists, were also handed prison terms
today--Ersin Yolcu was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months for instigating
murder; Ahmet İskender to 13 years and six months for instigating the murder
and owning a gun without a license; and Salih Hacısalihoğlu to 10 weeks for illegal
possession of bullets, news reports said.

Dink's
family, colleagues, and supporters have repeatedly called for the prosecution
of security and military officials with radical nationalist sympathies whom they
suspect of ordering the editor's killing in retaliation for his work. Dink was
subjected to death threats, hate mail, and politicized prosecution for
"insulting Turkishness" in retaliation for his controversial writings on the
plight of ethnic Armenians during World War I. In a July interview, Dink's
successor at the newspaper, Rober Koptaş, told CPJ: "We know
there is evidence that a lot of police and soldiers are involved in the
assassination [of Hrant Dink]. ... [But] there is no real investigation about
state officials, whether civilian or military."

In
reaction to today's verdict, Dink's family lawyer Fethiye Çetin told the
Turkish press that the family will continue to press for justice. "It is not
over--this trial is just beginning," she said. Friends and supporters are
planning a gathering on January 19, the fifth anniversary of Dink's slaying, to
demand the end of impunity.

"Justice
for our colleague Hrant Dink will not be achieved until the commissioners of
his slaying five years ago are tried and punished to the full extent of the
law," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "We
stand in solidarity with Dink's family, colleagues, and friends in calling for
a thorough and transparent investigation into the suspected involvement of
military and security service officials in this brutal crime."

Since
the court proceedings began nearly five years ago, at least 19 individuals have
been prosecuted for having various degrees of involvement in Dink's murder, CPJ
research shows. Today's
verdict--two days before the fifth anniversary of the journalist's
assassination--resulted in the convictions of only secondary accomplices and failed
to address the pivotal question of who masterminded the crime.

In
July, a juvenile court sentenced Samast, a
teenager at the time of the killing, to about 23 years in prison for committing
the crime, news reports said. In June, a court in the Black Sea province of
Trabzon convicted six military
officers
of having had information on the murder but failing to prevent the killing,
according to news reports. The officials were handed months-long prison terms,
which they have appealed, and they were not incarcerated. The masterminds of
the murder were never prosecuted, CPJ research shows.